Monday, March 19, 2001

The undergraduate calendar is available from the
registrar's office in printed form -- one to a customer -- with
extra copies for sale at the bookstore. It's also
on the web.

Students pick classes this week

This week brings "Class Enrolment (formerly called pre-registration)" for
undergraduate students, as they identify the courses they plan to take
when they're back on campus in the fall term.

'On-line drop/add will be
introduced in the fall'

Many things are new, and more will be new by September, as
the basic
instructions for this week's paperwork explain:

"Over the next 12 months, the University will be rolling out a new
student information
system. We're excited about the new ways we'll be able to provide
services to you. Web-enabled processes such as class selection and on-line
drop/add will be introduced in the fall for Winter 2002 class selection.
Marks query and on-line academic advising will be added next year.

"We go live in July but have to collect your class selections on paper
now and enter them once we're up and running in the summer. Unfortunately, we
are not able to collect your Plan Modification and Class Selection
information electronically as yet. We anticipate that dependence on
paper-based processes will end soon. Please be patient
as we make the transition."

A key thing that's new is that students themselves will be responsible for
developing a timetable without course conflicts. The present scheduling
system, now 30 years old, would take student course requests and develop
a timetable based on them. The new system works the other way round:
the timetable is set first and students choose their courses knowing
when a class will meet.

Printed and on-line material for class enrolment includes a
blank timetable planner, as well
as the necessary forms to submit course choices -- using a four-digit
"class number" assigned to each course section.

Among other novelties: a "program" is now an "academic plan", a
"faculty" in some contexts is an "academic group", a "course number"
is now a "catalogue number", and Thursday is abbreviated Th instead of R.

"What's next?" the instructions wind up. "In August, we'll mail you a
Study List (formerly called a schedule or timetable) that reflects
your class selections. A bill for tuition, etc., will be sent separately
by the Finance Department."

Survey asks about library service

A sample of faculty members and students is being surveyed this
week about the quality of service in the UW library, with some
60 questions about how it lives up to their expectations.

The survey, being done through a web site, is part of a study
that currently involves three universities in Canada (UW, Guelph
and McGill) and 42 in the United States.
University librarian Murray Shepherd explains the project in a memo:

What do library users expect of the services we provide?
How well is the library meeting those expectations?
Because these are questions of growing interest and concern to
many libraries, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is
developing a survey instrument designed to help its members
better understand their users' views of the services they offer.
Last spring the survey instrument, known as
LibQUAL+ (based on
industry's
ServQual
measuring instrument) was tested through a
pilot project with twelve participating libraries, including
one in Canada (York). . . .

A sample of Waterloo faculty (600), graduate students (1,000)
and undergraduates (1,700) will receive e-mail invitations to
take part by answering a set of questions about their expectations
of the Library and how well their expectations have been met.

The data collected can be compared with findings from other academic
libraries, and may give library managers and staff ideas of areas in which
our Library is especially strong and other areas in which our work needs
review or improvement.

Leading UW's involvement in the study are Susan Routliffe,
assistant university librarian (information services), and
Mark Haslett, associate librarian (information services and
systems). They're stressing that the current effort is primarily
a research project, aimed at finding out how well the
survey tool works, and note that UW's participation has received
ethics clearance through the UW office of research.

The faculty and students who were randomly selected for the
survey were notified by e-mail late last week, and today are
getting a second e-mail message that gives them the URL where
they can answer the survey questions.

"By responding to the survey," says the first e-mail message
to them, "you will help researchers determine how sound the
instrument is and what changes are required for improvement.
In addition, you will provide us with valuable information about
your perceptions of services offered by the
University of
Waterloo Library. . . .

"Completed surveys are sent to researchers at Texas A & M University
who ensure that your privacy is maintained by applying the
ethical standards of the American Psychological Association.
The data that we receive from the researchers will be aggregated
and will not reveal the identity of individual respondents."

People who complete the survey by the
March 30 deadline can enter their names in a prize draw.

Donors meet creator of tapestry

A group of UW's largest donors and their friends will get "a personal
view" of the Bayeux Tapestry tomorrow morning from someone who knows
it well: Ray Dugan, retired professor of French, who spent years
hand-crafting a detailed replica of the 900-year-old treasure.

He'll be the guest of honour tomorrow morning at a "breakfast circle
seminar" for the President's Circle, starting at 7:30 in the Festival
Room of South Campus Hall.

The President's
Circle consists of individual donors of more than $1,000 a year to
the university. Tickets for tomorrow's event, including talk and
continental breakfast for two, cost $15 (call Wendy Rose, ext. 5069).

For Dugan, who first saw the famous
Bayeux
Tapestry in Europe more than 30 years
ago, it represents more than an exquisite work of art and an important
historical document. The tapestry records the events leading up to the
Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066. (Pictured at right is the first
segment of the tapestry, which is a total of 70 metres --
230 feet -- long and about half a metre wide.)

Dugan's fascination with the work began in the 1980s when he started
hand-stitching some of the scenes. In 1993, after the death of his two sons
in an accident, the hobby became a means of coping with the loss.
Eventually, he reproduced the entire tapestry as a memorial
to the two young men. It has been displayed in many galleries, museums
and churches, as well as being a tool of expression for Dugan and his wife
when they speak to groups dealing with grief.
His tapestry is on display all this year at the
Lambton Heritage
Museum, between Grand Bend and Sarnia.

Dugan was a professor at UW from 1968 until his retirement
in 1996; he served as chair of the department of classics and romance
languages and, after a reorganization, the department of French studies.

Another week of fun and frolic

The sun is shining and -- what more could anyone want? -- it's
National Co-op Week, so designated by the
Canadian Association
for Co-operative Education. UW's
co-op department has
played a big part in CAFCE over the years, as befits the university
with the world's largest co-op program. This week in co-op at Waterloo,
"continuous phase" interviews for spring term jobs continue, and there
will be several more sessions in the career development seminar
series. (The career resource centre in Needles Hall can provide details.)

David Johnston, president of UW, will be at the Kitchener Public
Library (main branch) at noon today, to speak on "Community
Connectiveness".
Johnston
has been involved in a good half-dozen national studies and task forces on
issues related to how all Canadians can have access to the Internet
in "smart communities".

A music student recital is scheduled for 12:30 today in the chapel at
Conrad Grebel College -- sorry, I don't have details.

"The secret love child of Alice Munro and Stephen King" is expected at
St. Jerome's University this afternoon. Well, that's how one reviewer
described the work of Andrew Pyper, anyway. A memo from Gary Draper, of
the English department at St. Jerome's, introduces today's visitor:

Andrew Pyper, a native of Stratford, Ontario, is one of the fastest-rising
stars in Canadian writing. He received a BA and an MA in English
Literature from McGill University in Montreal, as well as a law degree from
the University of Toronto. Although called to the bar in 1996, he has never
practiced. Kiss Me, a collection of short stories, was published to
acclaim in 1996. His first novel, Lost Girls, was a national
bestseller in Canada and a Globe and Mail Notable Book selection. . . .
The novel won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel
and is an Otto Penzler pick on Amazon.com. Lost Girls has been
published in
the US and UK in 2000, and is also being translated into Italian, Dutch,
German and Japanese. Film rights to Lost Girls have been optioned by
Jersey Films and Universal Pictures.
Andrew
Pyper lives in Toronto, where he is at work on his second novel.

And he quotes some of the reviews of Pyper's work, such as one from the
Globe that says Pyper achieves "a smart,
wry, controlled
tone narrating a northwoods Gothic. A satisfying, old-style morality tale
set in a ripping good -- and complex -- story brimming over with 90's style
pockmarked souls and bruised psyches."
Today's reading (admission free) starts at 4:00 in the common room
at St. Jerome's.

Stephen
Katz of the Centre for Judaic Studies at Boston University will
speak at UW tonight, in the "distinguished guest lecture series"
sponsored by the Jewish studies program. Katz's title: "Jewish Resistance
During the Holocaust". He will offer, a flyer says, "an in-depth look
at the means and practice of
Jewish
resistance, both spiritual and
physical, during the Holocaust". The talk starts at 7:30 in Siegfried
Hall, St. Jerome's University, and will be followed by a reception;
everyone is welcome.

Looking ahead through the week:

The drama department production of "The Club" will run
Wednesday through Saturday nights in the Theatre of the Arts.

A session on "Eating for Energy: Working towards a healthy
weight" is scheduled for 4:30 on Wednesday at health services.
Anyone interested can call ext. 3544 to register.

The Federation of Students presents "Cultural Caravan" in the
Student Life Centre, Wednesday from 4:30 to 8 p.m., with music,
dance and food from countries around the world.

The "2020" lecture series presents a talk on Thursday evening (8 p.m.) by
Azim Nanji,
director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. Watch for
more information about this event later in the week.